Analog Sparks, a film photography competition with a $1K first-place cash price award (and multiple others) is accepting submissions.
I’ve briefly covered Analog Sparks’ last year competition and its winners here: analog.cafe/r/film-photogr… — there’s some serious competition, if you’re thinking of entering — and a very talented group of artists to be a part of as well. Best works will be shown at the House of Lucie Athens exhibition space (houseoflucie.org/athens/).
As you can tell, this contest is open specifically for film photographers, and it’s available to anyone in the world, as long as you’re over 18.
There is an affordable entry fee ($10-25) and multiple deadlines with the final date for submission being July 25, 2024.
I recommend sending your work at least a day early to accomodate for time zone differences and possible technical issues. Your files must be JPEGs with at least 1000px on the long side and a maximum of 4MB in size. The organizers are asking the files to be stored in 72DPI resolution (you can learn more about DPIs here: analog.cafe/r/the-best-res…).
An Australian film lab, Film Never Die, has just launched a Kickstarter project for their film camera design, Nana.
The camera was on presale on their website since October last year (I briefly wrote about it here: analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…). It then listed a 31mm 𝒇9 fixed-aperture lens, motorized film advance, and a metal body.
The Kickstarter version now offers a 31mm 𝒇11 single-element fixed-aperture lens with a top shutter speed of 1/125s. It’s a “focus-free” camera (similar to Kodak Ektar H35N analog.cafe/r/kodak-ektar-…). FND says they’re working on a side-in lens element (presumably for sharper close-ups), but it’s unclear whether that’s going to be done in time for the product launch.
The camera is designed to be light and compact (110mm x 62mm x 38mm) and 300g with film. The company has also shared photos demonstrating the Nana lens outperforming their previous “reusable” (presumably plastic lens) film camera — though it’s the same image they shared last year, attributed to a 𝒇9 lens design.
Kickstarter pledges that include the camera are between AU$225 to AU$275 (or $150-$180 in USD).
Two major photography manufacturers released new* film this month.
Foma Bohemia, a Czech manufacturer founded in 1921, made their fast orthochromatic Orho 400 film available in 35mm. It’ll come in beautiful vintage-inspired boxes.
Foma says: “It is characterised by good resolving power and contour sharpness, fine grain and high maximum density of the silver image… Its high optical sensitivity enables to take photographs even in adverse light conditions and using shorter exposure times. The nominal optical sensitivity of the film is ISO 400/27°, but its wide exposure latitude provides very good results even when overexposed by 1.5 EV (ISO 160/23°) and underexposed by 2 EV (ISO 1600/33°).”
Shanghai Jiancheng Film (Shanghai Shenbei) has been manufacturing film in China since 1958, most notably their Shanghai GP3 black and white series. But their latest release is an apparent rebrand (source: reddit.com/r/AnalogCommuni…) of ORWO Wolfen NC 500 (NC 500 film review: analog.cafe/r/orwo-wolfen-…). It’ll come in a metal canister with a DX code, which is a huge plus (here’s why: analog.cafe/comments/d0ur).
“The Big Film Photowalk” to be THE BIGGEST concurrent UK film photography walk ever!
This summer, on June 29th (midday), Analogue Wonderland and Kodak will host an enormous photography event all over the UK — along with shops, labs, darkrooms, galleries, and workshops around the country.
More than 40 photowalks are planned, from Fraserburgh in the north to Brighton in the south — and more are in the works.
Here’s more about the event from Analogue Wonderland:
“Attendees will get a guided tour from a local film expert, a Kodak colour 35mm film, and free development of that roll with Analogue Wonderland. The photos taken on the walk will be automatically included in a photo competition, judged by experts at Kodak Film and Analogue Wonderland, with several prizes up for grabs! The tours will all be led by AW staff, Ambassadors, analogue organisations, or trusted community members. Those already involved include: the Royal Photographic Society, Sunny 16 Podcast, LondonCameraProject, Little Vintage Photography, Solarcan, 35mmc, Shrewsbury Film Photography Club, Film Production Academy, Stills Gallery, LondonAltPhoto, Leicester Lo-Fi Darkroom, Folk House Darkroom, 6 Towns Darkroom Club, Lux Darkroom, Dark Art Sessions, 6 Towns Darkroom Club, CameraGoCamera, Hazlehurst Studios, Intrepid Cameras, and more.”
Plastic film canisters also don’t come with DX code (analog.cafe/r/a-beginners-…), which can cause issues with many point-and-shoot cameras. I’ve only got one roll so far, which came with a DX code sticker (analog.cafe/r/amber-t800-f…) that I was to attach myself.
Whereas some point-and-shoot cameras will default to ISO 100, which can still be OK for certain emulsions rated up to ISO 400 (like Lomochrome Purple, analog.cafe/r/lomography-l…) — others, like Konica Big Mini F (analog.cafe/r/konica-big-m…) default to ISO 25.
35mm film needs canisters, and they’re in short supply.
Kodak and Ilford manufacture and sell classic metal 135 film canisters, so they and brands like CineStill could package and distribute the most common type of camera film.
However, the demand for 35mm film has grown dramatically in the past five years, and the big two are struggling to meet it. Kodak even had to change their canister design at some point to circumvent a supply issue (petapixel.com/2021/06/30/k…).
There’s an alternative 35mm film canister build that has gained recent popularity:
The plastic 135.
It looks nearly identical and works like the metal — but I don’t think it’s as good. The plastic 135 canisters break and malfunction whenever I try to reuse them, which isn’t ideal for bulk loading.
Given their disposable nature and the severe issues with recycling (cbc.ca/documentaries/the-p…), these plastic canisters are just another source of plastic pollution and customer inconvenience that’s better avoided.
I understand the necessity and the convenience of the product. I can see that it’s easy to load the first time, and it’s more accessible than the metal canisters. But I’d always pick a metal can if there’s a choice.
Ilford’s Ultra Large Format order window is now open until June 1.
From 127 HP5+ rolls to 20x24 sheets of FP4, Ilford is now receiving orders for large and unusual film sizes across various retailers.
Ilford (or Harman Photo) is the only company offering this service, which happens once a year. This is the time when you can place an order for your giant or odd film sizes with your local shop (complete list of retailers here: ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-cont…). Harman will then produce your film and ship it around September.
Ilford notes that there are minimums for all orders and reassures us that they don’t need a huge production quantity to justify cutting the film for us, which is so nice!
Jennifer, the Team Leader for Film & Chemistry at Polaroid, has added a few technical details on Instagram:
1. The new chemistry includes colour stability improvements that ensure that the frames remain black and white, instead of brown and white as they age. Some examples of this effect can be seen in my review of the SX-70 film: analog.cafe/r/polaroid-ban…
2. The ratio of TBHQ (or tertiary butylhydroquinone), a black and white developer that was first talked about at length when Polaroid released their Reclaimed Blue frames (analog.cafe/r/polaroid-rec…) has increased. In turn, this appears to have bumped the micro-contrast/sharpness of the photographs (this answers my question about the new chemistry above).
3. Further tweaks seem to have dramatically improved the overall contrast ratio/extended the dynamic range of film. As you can see in the side-by-side example posted below, the new chemistry (left) shows greater shadow *and* highlight detail. In short, this means it’ll be easier to avoid over- and under-exposing Polaroid film, which is known to be the greatest issue with the emulsion.
All of the above is very good news. I’m glad we’ve got more context about the improvements; looking forward to running my own tests with this film!
Polaroid has just announced improvements to their black and white “600” film chemistry.
The new B&W 600 frames (which now come with the standard white, fancy black, and the novel grey borders) are promised to have “richer detail” and “lighter contrast.”
Since it was founded as Impossible Project (history: analog.cafe/r/a-brief-hist…), Polaroid continuously altered its emulsion, batch by batch.
Polaroid’s ongoing improvements are usually incremental and hard to notice; the most significant one thus far (for colour film) is documented here: analog.cafe/r/polaroid-ori…
Today’s B&W 600 upgrade is meant to be another significant step in bettering the film’s dynamic range, which I estimated earlier to be around 3.5 stops (making it one of the hardest films to expose correctly): analog.cafe/r/polaroid-ban…. Hopefully, the new frames beat that number, which is paramount to creating better images, esp. for new photographers.
I’m also curious to see what they meant by “richer detail” (whether it’s stronger microcontrast on the emulsion level, improvements to the plastic guard, or both). I’ll place an order as soon as my bank account recovers. 😅
P.S.: I’ve contacted Polaroid about upgrades to their SX-70 chemistry and will update this thread as soon as I hear back.
Making CURSED Images | Can You Develop Film In BLOOD?
Yvonne’s side of the project adds serious Halloween vibes in May. This (below) video unveils her experience developing black and white film *for the first time* using the theory and methodology in this project.
While the pig’s blood developer-rinsed photographs were not included in the standard table of agents (above), the results were surprisingly good (?). That is, the roll of HP5+ Yvonne shot was exposed at box speed (EI 400), sometimes under-exposed, and yet, the frames scanned quite well. The negatives weren’t particularly thin, which is already better than most developers in this article. But she won’t say that the process was pleasant.
Dmitri May 19, ‘24
Dmitri May 19, ‘24
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Dmitri May 11, ‘24
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Dmitri May 7, ‘24
Dmitri May 7, ‘24